Bonnie Ernst Hearon graduated from UMHB in 1973 and eventually joined the staff of Texas A&M University. She took a group of students on a mission trip to Brazil and felt God nudging her. “It was while I was in Brazil that God really spoke to my heart about being involved in missions for a lifetime. That was really when I felt my calling.”
She completed that year at A&M and went on to seminary, where she met her husband, Tom. “We were both focused on eventually going overseas for mission work,” she said. “We worked for UMHB for four years and then moved to Brazil. After a year of language learning, we focused on university student ministry. That continued for about eight years, and then we went into more direct church planting.”
The Hearons served in Brazil for fourteen years and in Italy for six years. Presently, they are serving immigrant populations in Austin, Texas. “We were contacted by a group that is trying to reach immigrants who have come to what we call gateway cities,” she said. “They are considered gateway cities in that people have come to us but are still very connected to their homes.”
In their present work, they recognize that Christians may want to do something to help immigrant populations, but they don’t know how to begin.
“That’s where we want to help our churches make first steps in ministering to immigrants and presenting the Gospel in a way they can understand,” Hearon said. “Most of them haven’t even heard the story of Jesus. We want to come in at the point of helping churches be able to share the Gospel with immigrant populations and train them to connect with their own people back home, to share what Jesus has done.”
In reflecting on her own journey, Hearon recalls a life-changing moment during her time at UMHB. “When I was a junior in college here, God really got my attention and really showed me that if I gave him everything that I am, he would do some things I couldn’t imagine,” she said. “And that has actually happened. I think when we can take our hands off of our own lives and say, ‘Yes, Lord, I will do whatever you want me to do,’ we will be amazed. We’ll be amazed and join in with his witnesses, and he’ll use it for his eternal purposes.”

]]>http://life.umhb.edu/seasoned-missionary-following-the-call-to-serve-abroad-and-stateside/Art as Therapy: How one alumna is making a difference in Hondurashttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/umhblife/~3/U2nYf2Y2K3A/
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:51:58 +0000http://life.umhb.edu/?p=9349

Rachel Lewis graduated from UMHB in May 2016 with a major in Art, a minor in Psychology, and a heart for the Gospel. In March, Lewis will move into a full-time role with the Signs of Love ministry as it serves the hearing-impaired in Honduras. “I’m going to be doing art therapy with the deaf to help them deal with the hard emotional issues that all of them have but that are very difficult for them to express with language,” she said.
The culture in Honduras can be very unkind to the hearing-impaired. “People are not educated about deafness and there is a lot of superstition around it,” Lewis said. “Parents think that they must have done something wrong to be cursed with a deaf child. They don’t see their kid as a normal human. They don’t think they can learn, and they don’t give them any kind of opportunity to learn,” she said.
Language training is almost non-existent within these communities. Many deaf people grow up with a handful of invented gestures that they use to communicate immediate needs. “Most of them don’t have the language capacity to be able to express the hurts and emotions in their lives, so I want to be able to give them art as a tool to express those hurts,” Lewis said.
“That way they can experience the Lord more Lewis remembers encountering deaf people her own age who didn’t know their own names. “We’ll ask their parents, ‘What’s your son’s name,’ and they’ll just look at us blankly because they don’t know it. They haven’t used it in twenty years,” she said. “They’ll say, ‘I have a birth certificate somewhere, and I can go and find it.’” For this reason, an import-ant part of Lewis’s work will involve developing a curriculum to help teach Honduran sign language (LESHO). “Whereas many outreach ministries begin with, ‘Learn the language, that way we can reach people and share the Gospel with them,’ we have to give them language first,” Lewis said.

Lewis was introduced to Signs of Love in high school when her church partnered with the ministry. “I was able to help be a lead-er in the youth missions team, and I just really fell in love with the organization,” Lewis said. While she had always planned on pursuing a master’s degree after graduation, Lewis said that a mission trip during the summer before her senior year convinced her that God had other plans for her life. “As a fine artist, I didn’t really think things like paint or clay could be used in the mission field,” Lewis said. “But Signs of Love has utilized all of my skills to glorify God.”

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor has announced that Dr. Brandon Skaggs has been promoted to the position of vice president for student life and Jeff Sutton will join the Development Department as the director of alumni relations. Both transitioned to their new positions on January 2, 2017.
Skaggs joined the administration of the university in January 2016 as director of alumni relations and has more than 10 years of experience in Christian higher education administration. A 2003 UMHB graduate with a double major in Business Management and Computer Information Systems, Skaggs earned an MBA in Finance and Management from Tarleton State University and an Ed.D. in Higher Ed-ucation Leadership from Dallas Baptist University.
“Dr. Skaggs’ extensive experience in student life administration and his understanding of our campus culture make him an outstanding selection as vice president for student life,” said Dr. Steve Theodore, senior vice president for administration and COO.
Sutton graduated from UMHB with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion in 2007 and soon joined the UMHB staff as assistant director of campus activities. For the past nine years, he has over-seen programming for undergraduate student activities and supervised the planning and staging of annual events such as Family Weekend, Miss Mary Hardin-Baylor Pageant, Crusader Knights, and the Easter Pageant.
“Sutton combines a wealth of institutional knowledge, a love for his alma mater, and nine years of experience with event and relationship management,” said Dr. Rebecca O’Banion, Vice President for Development. “I am confident he will be a great visionary leader for UMHB.”

]]>http://life.umhb.edu/skaggs-and-sutton-transition-to-new-administrative-positions/Volleyball earns ASC second-place titlehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/umhblife/~3/q4FwPVqriJ0/
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:41:45 +0000http://life.umhb.edu/?p=9342The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women’s volleyball team earned the second place title at the 2016 American Southwest Conference Volleyball Championship Tournament after playing the UT Dallas Comets on November 5, 2016. Junior Natasha Evans led all athletes in the tournament with 163 assists; sophomore Maddie Frerich was the tournament’s leading blocker with 24; and freshman Sarah Paolini had a third-best performance in points with 67.5. The UMHB team had a strong finish to the season with a 20-11 record.
]]>http://life.umhb.edu/volleyball-earns-asc-second-place-title/Alumni Association names two honorary membershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/umhblife/~3/-Bt5ASvzrWM/
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:38:28 +0000http://life.umhb.edu/?p=9339The UMHB Alumni Association has named Norman Niesen and Jack Phelps honorary alumni. Honorary membership is given to individuals who, although not graduates of the University, exhibit love and loyalty to the school in various ways.
Norman Niesen’s wife, Dorothy
“Lane” Niesen, received her degree from UMHB in 1948. They met while Dorothy was in school at UMHB, and Norman was a soldier at Fort Hood. Just prior to graduation, Norman proposed to Dorothy on the steps of Stribling Hall, where he had sat with her many times before curfew. Norman and Dorothy have two children and four grandchildren. Dorothy had a 35-year career as an educator in Texas. She retired from the Fort Worth ISD in the 1990s and passed away in 2011. Norman believes in the mission of UMHB and remembers how Dorothy struggled to repay a $1,000 college loan she had after graduation. Norman hopes that, through his gifts to scholarships and new facilities, he will be able to help young students during their college years. Norman never misses a Crusader football game or event on campus, and he says he feels closest to memories of Dorothy when he is at UMHB.
Jack Phelps recently retired from Crestview Baptist Church in Georgetown, where he served as Associate Pastor since 2001. Prior to his call to the ministry, Jack worked in retail as Senior Vice President of CompUSA Inc. and Vice President of Operations at Eckerd Drugs. He is beginning his ninth year of service on the Board of Trustees at UMHB, where he is chair of the academic affairs committee. Jack and his wife, Karen, have two grown children. Jack’s love for Mary Hardin-Baylor begins with the school’s mission and vision, and he says his hope for UMHB students is that they graduate and build lives that represent the Christian values of the university. He is an avid UMHB Crusader football fan and can be found loudly cheering on the team for another “Crusader First Down.”
The Alumni Association recognized Norman and Jack as official members of the UMHB Alumni family at halftime of the Homecoming football game on October 22, 2016.
]]>http://life.umhb.edu/alumni-association-names-two-honorary-members/Homecoming weekend reunites hundreds of alumni and friendshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/umhblife/~3/78Ns4JKRdLQ/
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:31:42 +0000http://life.umhb.edu/?p=9333On October 21 and 22, 2016, UMHB celebrated its Homecoming. Hundreds of alumni journeyed back to campus to enjoy fun activities, traditions, and special events.
Homecoming kicked off Friday afternoon with a carnival in Millennium Oaks Park. The carnival featured rides, games, and refreshments, and it served to reunite many alumni for the first time. This included former UMHB tennis play-er Jose Artiles ‘86, who traveled from Spain to Belton to celebrate his 30th reunion with friends and his UMHB tennis coach, James Cohagan.
Friday evening, the party moved into W.W. Walton Chapel for Stunt Night, which is a UMHB tradition that dates back to the turn of the century. The event challenges the students of each class to work as teams producing performances that combine skit, singing, and dancing. This year’s theme was Pixar, so every class’s performance represented one of the animation studio’s films. Performers and class-es were recognized with awards based on votes from both a panel of judges and the audience. This year, the junior class took home the prize for the winning performance.
Following the announcement of the Stunt Night winners, students and alumni gathered for a pep rally and fireworks at the Luther Memorial. Meanwhile, a dessert party was held in Millennium Oaks Park.
On Saturday, CRU fans gathered outside the Musick Alumni Center and Museum to tailgate the foot-ball game against Hardin-Simmons University. The game began at 1:00 p.m. inside Crusader Stadium, and the halftime show featured a ceremony retiring the jersey number of former UMHB football player Jerrell Freeman. The Crusaders walked away with a victory of 20-15 against Hardin-Simmons.
]]>http://life.umhb.edu/homecoming-weekend-reunites-hundreds-of-alumni-and-friends/Ceremony retires jersey number of Jerrell Freemanhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/umhblife/~3/sVuiVzJTVpo/
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:26:41 +0000http://life.umhb.edu/?p=9330On Saturday, October 22, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor held a special ceremony retiring the jersey number of standout alumnus Jerrell Freeman during halftime of the Cru’s Homecoming game against Hardin-Simmons University.
The ceremony began with a video celebrating Freeman’s football career, from his first season at UMHB to his current play for the Chicago Bears. Following the video, Freeman was joined at midfield by his parents, Angela and Jimmy Freeman, UMHB President and First Lady Randy and Julie O’Rear, Cru Vice President for Athletics Randy Mann, and Head Football Coach Pete Fredenburg. Fredenburg presented Freeman with a framed replica of his Cru jersey. Another jersey will be put on display in the Andersen Field House near the Jerrell Freeman Team Room.
In a surprise for Freeman, the crowd was directed to look to the south end zone where his brother Jimmy and two nieces, Ashley and Mariyah, unveiled a special monument below the scoreboard. The monument bears a number eight at its top, followed by a list of some of Freeman’s athletic accomplishments, and his name at its base.
The Crusaders finished the game with a 20-15 victory over HSU. Following the win, several fans took photos next to the new monument, which will be a permanent fixture in Crusader Stadium, celebrating the achievements of the first UMHB player to sign with the NFL and inspiring current and future players to reach new heights.
]]>http://life.umhb.edu/ceremony-retires-jersey-number-of-jerrell-freeman/National Champions!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/umhblife/~3/koix1Qfiznk/
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:12:25 +0000http://life.umhb.edu/?p=9324Cru football wins national championship:

For the first time in program history, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team became NCAA Division III National Champions on Friday, December 16, following a 10-7 victory over the Wisconsin-Oshkosh Titans in the 2016 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, held in Salem, Virginia.
The playoff season began for the Cru on November 19 with a 50-28 victory over the Redlands Bulldogs in Crusader Stadium. This win advanced the Cru to the second round of playoffs, where they beat Linfield College 27-10 on November 26 and progressed to the quarterfinals. On December 3, a 38-16 Cru win against Wheaton College secured UMHB’s place in the semifinals against Mount Union in Crusader Stadium. The Cru advanced to the national championship game with a win of 14-12 over defending national champion Mount Union on Saturday, December 10. UMHB closed out the season with a perfect 15-0 record to set new school and Ameri-can Southwest Conference records for single-season victories.
“This win is the culmination of many years put together,” said UMHB head coach, Pete Fredenburg. “Dr. Bawcom had the vision to begin a football program, and his vision has intensified through Dr. O’Rear. All the players and coaches who came before this group have laid the groundwork for this special team to come in and win a national championship. We’ve dreamed of this.”

Last fall, the Department of Music presented the UMHB Opera Theatre production of the 2016 Broadway Revue, and the production featured hits from Broadway classics like Phantom of the Opera, Oklahoma, Hello Dolly, Sound of Music, Carousel, Annie Get Your Gun, and Kiss Me Kate. It was directed by George and Penny Hogan, who also served as conductor and stage director, respectively, and the numbers were performed by student vocalists. Six of these vocalists gathered recently to discuss the performance and what musical theatre means to them.

When it came to rehearsals, students were thankful for a little “tough love.” “We were in a trio called ‘Sing for Your Supper,’” said junior Katherine Spellmon. “It was a very challenging piece because of the chord progressions, and it required a lot of practice.”
“Rehearsals were fast paced,” added junior Karon Chapa. “Sometimes, we didn’t know what our director, Mr. Hogan, was thinking, and we just had to follow along with him and hope for the best. He pushes us in the best way possible.”
“It is out of love, though,” said Spellmon. “He pushes us to make us better, and you can see it on stage, too. He really does make us better. He sees the potential in everyone.”

For these students, the thrill of this show wasn’t just about the individual performances, but also about the relationships they formed on stage with castmates. “I sang ‘Music of the Night’ from Phantom of the Opera with Cardarious (Bonner), which was an awesome experience,” said senior Chaz Corder.
“We all have very unique voices, so we were able to make this piece come alive in different ways,” added senior Cardarious Bonner. “In the moment of the actual performance, though, I was hearing things that were spectacular from my castmates, and it was inspiring.”
“It is always inspiring being up there together making music for the Lord, because in the end, that’s what it’s all about,” said Corder. “Our music professors talk a lot about touching the hearts of others. You never know what your audience is going through, and sometimes, what you have to say in a performance is exactly what they need to hear.”
These vocalists believe the art of musical theatre holds an important function regarding issues of faith and service. “We weren’t singing sacred music, necessarily, but part of the point of what we do is convey the message that it doesn’t have to be sacred to really move someone,” said Spellmon.
“All of our music professors teach that we can touch someone’s life through musical theatre,” said Chapa.
“Even in the silliest song, there are ways to worship and unite through it. I still hear audience members mention how much they connected to certain songs or how much certain musical pieces moved them.”
Even beyond the music, though, these performers agree that theatre has the power to be more than just entertainment. “I think what’s important about theatre is it seems to validate people,” said Corder. “It says, ‘What you’re going through is okay. It’s okay just to be you.”

“You disconnect momentarily,” added Chapa. “That’s what theatre is about: to take audience members away momentarily from whatever is going on in their lives. We know that’s our job as performers.”
“I think theatre is when you make magic on the stage, and you put people in another world,” said senior Tiffany Collazo. “When I sang ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’ from Evita, obviously I had to transform myself into the role of Evita. But I never just want to focus on myself and what I’m doing. I want the audience to feel they’re a part of the entire scenario. Theatre is immersing your audience into whatever you’re singing about.”
When it comes to what they are learning at UMHB, these students say they take lessons from theatre and apply them to life—lessons about versatility, humility, perseverance, and confidence. “Mr. Hogan likes to teach us to wear many hats, just as he does as the director and conductor,” said Corder. “We build our own sets and copy the music. He is adamant that we be versatile and very humble in our positions.”
“Also, theatre teaches you to persevere,” said Spellmon. “You may have rehearsals where you can’t do any-thing right, but theatre teaches you to move on. As in life, you fix the problem, come back the next day, and try again.”
“I’m very new to theatre,” added sophomore Joshua French. “In this most recent show, there was a part in my song ‘Do-Re-Mi’ from The Sound of Music that I just couldn’t master. Instead of getting frustrated, I had to practice and practice, and I think that’s a valuable lesson to learn in life.”
“Theatre also brings you closer to yourself, I think,” added Corder. “You learn more about yourself when you are exploring other characters, and you strengthen current aspects about yourself.”
“You can learn so much from being on stage,” said Spellmon. “I grew up in a military family, and I had a tendency to be shy in social situations. But on stage, I learned how to interact with people, and I began to use those skills in real life. It was a way for me to grow out of my comfort zone.”
“Theatre can really build confidence,” said Collazo. “Even before I came here, music was a way for me to come out of my shell because it was the one thing I knew I was good at doing. I could grow from that. Now, being with the positive people on campus has helped me be more sure of myself in all situations. Theatre has a way of doing that. We still get nervous before performances, but we channel that energy into our performances. Things like that help us grow and be functional human beings both on and off the stage.”
“And I’ll never forget something Mr. Hogan said when we began the semester,” Collazo added. “He told us that in theatre, we are not entitled to anything, just as we are not entitled to anything in life. We have to be responsible and work and work and work. That’s theatre, and that’s life.”

Photos courtesy of Bello Photography

]]>http://life.umhb.edu/being-broadway/The Past Is Never Deadhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/umhblife/~3/lbcfoDvhAvM/
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 15:55:26 +0000http://life.umhb.edu/?p=9316Why Church History Matters in an Undergraduate Curriculum:

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” When William Faulkner wrote this line in his novel Requiem for a Nun, he conveyed the notion that history matters because the past actively resonates in and shapes the present. When it comes to education, though, students often don’t see the point of studying history, especially when they are convinced the present is what really matters. Dr. Carol Holcomb, professor of Christian Studies at UMHB, is quite familiar with these issues of past and present, both in her teaching and her scholarship. As a prolific scholar, she has numerous publications investigating topics of gender, race, and Baptist church history, so in a recent interview, UMHB Life asked her to discuss why church history matters in an undergraduate curriculum.

How do you address the question, “Is the past relevant?”
I like to start by examining three myths—myths that have clouded the debate about why history is important.Myth 1: Since history has been used as a tool of power, then history is fundamentally unreliable. It is true that political regimes have used history to defend their various ideologies. But the reason tyrants write their own histories isn’t because history is irrelevant or unimportant; it is because history is so powerful. The narrative of the past shapes human identity and cultural self-understanding, so it is crucial that we struggle faithfully to narrate the past.Myth 2: Since history cannot be known perfectly, it cannot be known at all. Postmodernists rightly challenged common assumptions that we can retell history exactly as it happened. We can’t. Most historians now agree that our understanding of the past is not perfect. Like an archeologist pieces together shards of pottery to restore a watering jar, so the historian uses the shards of history to reconstruct a recognizable past. It may not be perfect, but we can narrate the truth about the past.Myth 3: We all do history. While the aims and methodologies of a theologian or church historian, for example, might be similar regarding history, they are distinct. Theology aims to tell the truth about God. Biblical Studies aim to tell the truth about the Bible. Philosophers attempt to tell the truth about what exists and why. Historians aim to tell the truth about the past. These tasks are not mutually exclusive, but they are distinct.

Why is history vital to our understandings as human beings and as Christians?
First, history is central for our faith proclamation and our faith formation. Scholars have argued that our essential faith claim is a historical claim. Christ came to earth, was crucified and resurrected. God entered history. God didn’t hover above it. History matters.
Second, it forms our identity. History forms who we are. Historian Carter Lindberg gives a powerful image for this, saying, “History is to the community as the memory is to the person.” Our memory helps us define who we are in space and time. Similarly, for the Christian community, history helps us find our place. It helps us remember who we are and why we’re here. Memory is key to the identity of the church. It is history that tethers us; it anchors us in the present and allows us to interact in authentic ways with our own culture. It is history that allows us to identify what our narrative should be.
Finally, history forms our ethical commitments. Historical methodology is constantly challenging my own tendency to use history for ideological purposes in power. It is really tempting to pick out the story that you want to hear—to try to tell the story that makes your history look better. But I’m ethically bound by the discipline of church history to listen to all the voices from the past. I’m bound to follow where the trail of evidence leads and tell the entire story, warts and all. I’m also obligated by the historical method to resist making history a slave to the present, to resist sifting through history and keeping only those narratives that I believe are valuable to the church today. When we lose all that history, all that texture, then we lose a valuable resource to speak to our present situation.What has been your experience teaching church history to college students, in particular?
Students come from all walks of life, and many of them don’t know the Bible at all when they come in. This changes the whole dynamic of the class because it opens up conversations that might not occur if every student had read the Old Testament many times. For this reason, I’m convinced you have to be physically present to do theological education, present in the room together. Jesus came in the flesh, and I think teaching is incarnational, especially in our disciplines. You have to be courteous and gracious, and live out the Gospel. And you have to hear someone else’s discovery and respond in the moment, in the flesh. That’s what’s so exciting about what we do.

Much of your research focuses on gender and race in Baptist church histories. Why is it important to discuss race and gender specifically?
It’s been one of our glaring blind spots, and I believe we have to talk about these issues. When I was in graduate school studying the women of the Woman’s Missionary Union—the Protestant missions organization for women—I would read letters of black and white women alike. I took the white women’s voices and overlaid the black women’s voices, and I discovered that doing so gave me a subtext to things that were being reported. I believe this subtext is important to acknowledge. It’s like you’ve been looking closely at a painting, and you’ve been focused on the individual dots. And then you back up and realize, “Wow, I needed to see it this way.” We aren’t telling the story of a perfect people, so why do we feel the need to leave the difficult stories out? The Bible doesn’t do it. It is in the ugliness that we see grace. You have to tell the whole story.